Amazon boss apologises for Orwellian Kindle blunder

"Stupid, thoughtless"

Amazon boss apologises for Orwellian Kindle blunder
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24 July 2009 9:52 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has issued a humble, "deep" apology for a blunder the company recently made regarding its Kindle ebook reader.

Upon realising two George Orwell titles, Animal Farm and 1984, published for the Kindle did not have the correct permissions, as well as delete the titles from the Kindle online store, Amazon remotely wiped them from customer's Kindle devices.

The move caused an outcry from users with the press picking up on the story, especially with the ironic 1984 comparison to be drawn from Amazon's hasty actions.

Now Bezos has apologised in the Kindle user forums with the following message:

"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission".

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Comments

  • Hmmm, butu will they refund the end users who paid for 1984 and now have had it wiped ?
    Reminds me of the out cry when it was found that Apple could also remotely remove any program/files from the iPhone 3G series whenever *they* wanted to.

    Truely we live in a big brother society.     Posted by adrianaitken, United Kingdom
  • Yes, they refunded the customers. But it's made the point that they can remove (or presumably even modify) the books you have on your kindle, which is obvious in hindsight, but still disconcerting. Posted by Mark Wheadon, United Kingdom

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